Naturally occurring toxins in the environment
Monitoring microcystins to protect human and wildlife from critical exposures
There are many toxic substances that exist in the environment as a result of naturally-occurring bacteria. One prominent example is microcystins (MC), which are naturally occurring toxins produced by certain genera of cyanobacteria. Reports suggest that microcystins are hepatotoxic and might also be tumor initiators.
Natural toxins such as microcystins in surface waters have been traditionally analyzed by HPLC with UV detection, or other methodologies such as GC. A shift to mass spec detection for these analyses to enables:
- Enhanced sensitivity for lower level toxin detection
- Better performance to simplify sample preparation for faster time to results
- Improved ruggedness to accommodate diverse sample types
- Higher specificity with MS/MS for improved accuracy and reliability in results
With the diversity in chemical structures of natural toxins in the environment, LC/MS/MS is an ideal tool to enable comprehensive analysis of a wide-scope of toxins, including microcystins, in a single analysis.
Sensitive detection of microcystin toxins
